Ukraine / Russia Ad Hoc Media Update (228)

SECGEN NATO OpEd on INF and breaches. EU pleads with Muscovy over INF. Much on Russian propaganda, including the pre-emptive effort to head off an expected OCCRP disclosure. VPK essay on crushing revolutions detailed. Syromyatnikov on almost a century of Soviet/Russian “fake news” doctrine.

Much on Erdogan’s effort to bust up NATO and feed Muscovy. He will likely pull Turkey out of NATO to support his campaign of producing a nationalistic frenzy. Latvia, Moldova update, and Poland starts to manufacture Mk-82 bodies.

Donbas update – Russians targeting civilian areas again. FSB investigator who lured teenager Hryb to Belarus to be kidnapped and framed has been charged by the SBU in Kyiv – if he steps out of Russia he can expect to end up in some Tsarist era jail cell in the suburbs of Kyiv. PSU Su-24M FENCER D practicing live fire shots with the Kh-29 / AS-14 KEDGE ASMs. Pivdenmash upgrading warstocks of the R-73 / AA-11 ARCHER close combat missile – details not disclosed.

Oliver Stone partakes in media meddling in Ukraine, and somebody (Russian operator?) shoots an RPG at the 112.uaTV studio, owned by an ardent Russia supporter.

Russia has terminated the INF contract and seriously endangered our security. Moscow should use its last chance to save him. Otherwise, it bears sole responsibility for the consequences. A guest contribution by the NATO Secretary General. The security of Europe is at stake. If Russia does not give in, it will put an end to a treaty banning an entire category of nuclear weapons in less than a month. The Washington Treaty on Nuclear Intermediate-range Systems, better known as the INF Treaty, is one of the most significant achievements of international arms control. In 1987, when Soviet Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty with US President Reagan, he said, “We can be proud of to plant this little tree from which one day a mighty tree of peace may grow. “And indeed this tree grew up. Nuclear medium-range systems have been developed to destroy European cities and kill millions of people. By getting rid of these weapons, the world has become safer.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Germany about a new medium-range missile developed by Russia. In his column for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Stoltenberg wrote about a mobile missile system that could reach Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Munich, Deutsche Welle’s Ukrainian service reports. “This is a mobile missile system; it is easy to hide it from tracking systems,” Stoltenberg said. According to the secretary general, Russia even managed to deploy its new development. However, he did not specify the location.

Three weeks before the termination of the Treaty on Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, the European Union called on Russia to return to compliance with this crucial disarmament agreement. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Federica Mogherini on Sunday, July 14, issued a statement on behalf of the EU, in which she warned of the threat of a new arms race, Tsenzor reports. NO referring to DW . “We are deeply concerned about the development of the situation with the INF Treaty, which may expire on August 2, 2019,” the document says. Mogherini urged Russia to carefully consider the repeated claims about the Russian 9M729 missile and immediately take action regarding full and demonstrable compliance with the treaty. “The coming days are the last chance for dialogue and taking the necessary measures to preserve this important pillar of the European security architecture,” the head of European diplomacy said. Read on “Tsenzor.NET”: “I do not see a breakthrough in the negotiations with Russia on the elimination of missiles” – Stoltenberg We remind you that the INF Treaty was concluded by the USA and the USSR in 1987. It prohibits missiles with a range from 500 to 5500 kilometers. The United States, whose position is supported by NATO allies, announced in early February that it was beginning to withdraw from this agreement, claiming that the Russian 9M729 rocket was violating it. The term for termination of the contract expires in early August. Russia denies violating the treaty, emphasizing that the range of the 9M729 missile is less than 500 kilometers. In early July, Moscow also officially suspended the implementation of the INF. Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137430

This is fabricated Russian disinformation. How can I tell? These are all only indicators, none totally reliable by itself. Predictive intelligence. The same as CW bombs “will be” dropped in Syria. This is a massive indicator. Historically, only Russian propaganda “predicts” future adversary operations which are shady – illegal, unethical, or immoral. CW bombs used on civilians. Future Disinformation Operation. You know, the stuff Russia does routinely. This is the release of extremely sensitive intelligence, from either HUMINT or SIGINT. HUMINT or SIGINT release will compromise the source and methods. That means of communications will be shut down. News sources are never privy to future foreign operations, especially of this sensitivity. Yes, it could be a deliberate leak. If deliberately leaked, however, that almost automatically gives the operation a “green light” to smear the target. Russia would not want that. It defeats the purpose of exposing the operation, to shut it down. Therefore, there is no operation, meaning this article is fabricated. Unnamed source. This is an easy way to fabricate and release a story No specificity of the “misinformation” If a planned US and UK operation mentioned “misinformation”, the intercept would contain the target’s name. None is mentioned The charge, such as pedophilia or another fetish, an illegal act, or treason, would be mentioned. The source. RIA Novosti is an official Russian propaganda outlet. Weird details. A joint “US-UK” propaganda operation? Russian propaganda almost always contains weird details, often conspiracy theory related. This would have to be the CIA operation, if the US is truly involved, they do foreign intelligence operations. They can keep a secret really quiet. MI-6 is the UK’s counterpart, they do foreign operations. If this type operation were even conceived, it would be so close-hold, like that of an astronomical black hole, nothing would come out. If compromised, it could be shut down quietly, then, another Russian “predictive intelligence” story would be discredited. There is a very tiny chance this is a real story, but probably based on one of Putin’s entourage really messing up, badly. For instance, if Dmitry Kiselyov had sex with another man and someone had a photo, this article might reduce the impact of the photo’s release. By the way, Kiselyov is not a nice guy, even to his own family. Russian propaganda chief Kiselyov gets his nephew jailed in Germany for involvement in war in Ukraine The original article, in Russian is published here, США и Британия готовят фейки об окружении Путина, сообщил источник <end editorial>

Russian news agency RIA Novosti, reported, with reference to a “military-diplomatic source,” that the US and British special services reportedly “prepare misinformation attack against the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his entourage in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.” It is alleged that this information will be used to justify new sanctions against Russia. According to the source of the agency, experts of the American and British intelligence services “prepare fake information about the Russian leadership” similar to the so-called Panamagate scandal which started after the publication of materials of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in 2016. The source of RIA Novosti claims that this “fake information” will be allegedly published through the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), that belongs to the financiers George Soros and Bill Browder. Information could also be spread through Radio Liberty and the Current Time TV channel. The source of RIA Novosti didn’t provide any evidence of the source’s allegations. News agency calls possible future publications about Putin’s entourage as interference in the internal affairs of Russia. In March 2016, the Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov spoke about the preparation of “customized” materials in foreign media about Putin’s entourage. A few days after his statement, “The Panama Papers” on offshore companies were published, which mentioned several people from the entourage of the Russian President, especially cellist Sergei Roldugin. Then journalists connected the “warnings” from Peskov with the fact that before the publication journalists appealed to the Kremlin with questions and requests for comment. It is unclear whether the current statement of RIA Novosti relates to questions of journalistic to the Kremlin.

Yesterday, The Hilll, published an article, Putin’s renewed attack on the US, by Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington D.C. The article is probably one of the better articles outlining the various forms of “Liberalism” throughout the world. However, I have heartburn about the headline focusing the reader on Putin ‘attacking’ the US. Putin made his statement before the G-20 conference in Japan, to put his statement into context, and he did make direct references to the US. Let me be clear, his statement was attacking the West, which does include the US, but Putin was not focusing on the US, not specifically. His statement was meant to establish verbal Russian dominance, of a sort, over the West. Such is not the case. This is a clear case of a him making a declaration that just is not true. This is consistent with his denials of aggressive, illegal, and intrusive actions around the world. In the article, Vladimir Putin says liberalism has ‘become obsolete, in the Financial Times, there is a good response to Putin from “Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said he “strongly disagreed” with Mr Putin. “What I find really obsolete is authoritarianism, personality cults and the rule of oligarchs,” he said. Most interesting are Putin’s denials of “covertly supporting populist movements through financial aid and social media, notably in the 2016 US presidential election, the Brexit referendum and the recent European Parliament elections.” Furthermore, Putin’s statement is full of braggadocio, designed and succeeding in enraging many in the West. His point, his purpose? To make his almost 20 year authoritative iron-fisted rule over Russia look better by denigrating all others, the West has gravitated to a liberal democratic system post-World War II. I am including a teaser below. </end editorial>

In a message to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid great attention to issues of national security, strengthening the combat readiness of the Armed Forces, and equipping them with modern and advanced weapons. The solution of these problems is impossible without the development of military science. On the eve of the international forum “Army-2018” “MIC” in collaboration with the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation opens a series of articles that raise issues of strategy development and tactics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, analyzes the experience of local conflicts, discusses scientific and technical problems. The experts of the problems of some materials known for the military-scientific conference AVN RF, held in March of this year. The experience of military conflicts in recent decades shows that the rapid development of science and technology introduces significant changes in the nature of warfare. Our western “partners” (NATO armed forces) are actively promoting a new type of warfare, or the so-called hybrid wars, which are based on non-military measures. In this case, the boundaries between the state of war and peace are erased.

Paul Goble Staunton, July 13 – Vladimir Putin’s regime is often presented as a pioneer in the production and use of “fake news;” but in fact, historical writer Nikolay Syromyatnikov says, “fake news” under various names has been part of Moscow’s modus operandi since January 1923, a tactic that Soviet leaders from beginning to end viewed as critical to their success. On January 11, 1923, 13 days after the formation of the USSR, Iosif Unslikh, the deputy head of the NKVD, asked the Politburo to authorize the creation of a bureau of disinformation in the State Political Administration of his commissariat. The Politburo agreed and that agency was set up (russian7.ru/post/feyk-novosti-v-sssr-zachem-nkvd-sozda/). (Syromyatnikov draws heavily on two sources, Yevgeny Zhirnov’s detailed history, “80 let sovetskoy sluzhbe dezinformatsii,” Kommersant, January 13, 2003, available at kommersant.ru/doc/358500and Lenid Shebarshin’s memoirs, The Last Battle of the KGB (in Russian, Moscow, 2013).) In its decision, the Politburo directed the new institution not only to collect information which might interest foreign intelligence services and clarify the extent to which those services were informed about Soviet secrets but also to disseminate plausible but fake information to mislead them and their governments. Such misleading stories were to be distributed about the domestic situation in Russia, the state of its military, as well as the work of the government and its various commissariats. In the case of especially important disinformation materials, the Politburo decree specified, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party was to make decisions. Many of the first such efforts were directed at discrediting the Russian emigration and its leadership, including Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich who aspired to be recognized as tsar and Vasily Shulgin, an important nationalist leader whose reputation was destroyed after he was led by the nose through Soviet Russia and wrote about it, only to be exposed. The Soviet Union’s “fake news” efforts continued in the 1930s with publications of books by Western journalists like Henri Barbusse celebrating the USSR and during World War II with an active radio program directed against German forces. In the early 1950s, Moscow spread fake stories about a supposed American “bacteriological war” in Korea. According to Syromyatnikov, “Western left-wing media willingly swallowed and distributed this ‘fake news.’ Soviet ‘colleagues simply sent the needed Western scholars the stories and sufficient money and the latter didn’t reject anything.” Former KGB officer Shebarshin in his memoirs says, the Russkaya semerka writer continues, that “in the late Soviet period, it wasn’t all that hard to find in the West a print journalist who would for money agree to write a pro-Soviet article.” And once one did, others would pick up on it, not recognizing the source of the original story. Indeed, according to Shebarshin, “the Gorbi phenomenon” was created in the West largely thanks to this method. The problem with all such claims, of course, is to know whether they are factual or whether they too are part of the fake news that Moscow has used with such success.

Paul Goble Staunton, July 13 – The severe climate, isolation, and lack of opportunities in the Russian Far East are so great, journalist Maria Sotskova says, that the region is “rapidly losing population and even the Chinese aren’t rushing to settle there” (dailystorm.ru/vlast/pokinu-magadan-chinovnikam-tak-i-ne-udalos-zamanit-lyudey-na-dalniy-vostok). Moreover, she continues, all Moscow’s policies intended to hold the existing population or attract new people – its distribution of free land, its support for the return of compatriots abroad, and attempts to create free economic zones – have all failed because they have not made the region attractive either for current residents or potential new ones. Yevgeny Bobrov, the deputy chairman of the Human Rights Council says that Moscow wants to keep people there or attract new ones without addressing the underlying social problems in the Russian Far East, something that would require “a complete change in the approach to social policy there.” People continue to flee the region, mostly to places near Moscow. Since the start of this year, more than 2,000 have left, and the number of births there dropped by another 2,000 during the first quarter, a loss of more than 4,000 that no conceivable amount of immigration is going to compensate for, he suggests. According to Bobrov, “the majority of the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District are included in the program of resettling compatriots, but the main problem with this state program is that it is directed not so much at compatriots as on the organized placement of labor migrants.” That means that officials and business control things, and potential immigrants are put off. But even worse, he continues, the state focuses on giving benefits to new people rather than to local residents, something that further alienates the latter without necessarily being sufficient to hold the former. Officials at the ministry for the development of the Far East say that the region will need 108,000 workers for industry and raw materials extract but that at present there does not seem to be any prospect that the government will be able to attract anything like that number. Consequently, there will be even more economic problems. Aleksey Korniyenko, a member of the Duma’s committee on regional policy and problems of the North and Far East, agrees with Bobrov that Moscow’s social policy in the region needs to change if there is to be any hope for the future. He suggests that the country should lower the pension age for people who work there. Unfortunately, there seems to be little prospect for that or for other changes in social policy. Instead, Moscow prefers a campaign style approach including its efforts to use free land as an attraction. But the free hectare program has been a failure. The government says it has attracted 73,000, but in fact, only 17 percent of the new owners live in the Far Eastern FD. According to Bobrov, the regime would have to offer a minimum of 40 free hectares for the program to make any sense. Those with less land could not be expected to make a go of it economically and consequently won’t stay after the propaganda effort of the regime shifts to something else. Despite that, the powers that be continue to push this notion as a salvation. One unfortunate, illegal but typically permitted example of what happens, Korniyenko says, is this: people take their free hectare, have all the forest on it cut down and sold, pocket the money, and never go near the place. That despoiling of the land has led to mass cutting which has made the recent flooding worse. Bobrov says that it is also important for the authorities to recognize that the Far Eastern Federal District is not homogeneous. The southern part is “more or less developed,” but “all the rest is in the deepest decline.” But part of the reason for that is Chinese involvement in the south doesn’t extend northward. The situation might improve if the government built more roads, but in fact, it isn’t even repairing the roads the region has. Unless that changes, ever more people will leave the region and ever fewer will come, leaving a void that perhaps someone else in the future will fill.

Paul Goble Staunton, July 14 – Many who would like to restore the Soviet Union like to say that ethnic relations in the USSR were nearly perfect and that all the problems various peoples face now are the result of the rise of capitalism and the dissolution of that state, a Russian blogger with the screen name “The Voice of Mordor” says. Those who utter such nonsense, he continues, either were born after the USSR ceased to exist, rely exclusively on stories in Pravda in the 1970s, or simply lie – or what is worse tell “half truths which in this case is even more frightening” (news-front.info/2019/07/12/golos-mordora-rol-obshhestvennogo-stroya-v-mezhnatsionalnyh-otnosheniyah/). In reality, the blogger continues, the situation in many regards was quite “paradoxical.” “In the Soviet Union, there was a real friendship of the peoples but at the same time there existed the most reactionary nationalism. And I cannot say which was stronger. It is possible that it was nationalism.” In much of the Russian Federation and central and eastern Ukraine, the situation was quite good. There were problems, of course; but people made friends across ethnic lines, there were numerous ethnically mixed marriages, and most of the time, “no one devoted any attention to nationality.” Where things were relatively good, no one should give credit to the communists. “People had simply lived there for centuries.” Often the only way one knew someone was of a different nationality was from his or her last name. “At the same time, these nationalities kept their language and their culture, and this was a good thing.” The country was the richer for it, Golos Mordora says. But there were many places where the situation was not as good – Western Ukraine and the Baltics always manifested nationalism. Not everyone there was a nationalist, but the nationalists set the tone. In the Trans-Caucasus too, there were tensions, but there were many Armenians in Baku and many Azerbaijanis in Yerevan – and many mixed marriages as well. There were also everyday frictions which had their roots in national identities. “Anyone who served in the army remembers how soldiers from particular places, especially from the republics of the Caucasus, kept to themselves, and this also did not lead to anything good. And in many republics, many representatives of the titular nations related to others in a negative way.” The policies of the CPSU in face at the end did more than a little to assist the growth of nationalism, the blogger continues. The cadres it selected to head republics were far from the best, and they gave rise to exactly the phenomenon the Kremlin said it opposed and then exploited it further after 1991. “One must not idealize inter-ethnic relations in the USSR,” Golos Mordora says. “Yes, there was much good, but there were also very many errors. What is necessary is to act so that these errors will never be repeated.” The blogger illustrates his article with a poster from the late Soviet times that says more than he does what the real problems were: it shows representatives of all the national republics in traditional peasant dress while showing the Russian dressed in a business suit. Such imagery also affected many in the West: the National Geographic did the same with a map in the late 1980s. But the colonial attitudes that such images reflect ensured that the system however stable it might have been at one point was ultimately doomed as all empires are – and that is a message that, while Golos Mordora doesn’t draw – his poster makes perfectly clear.

Aberdeen, July 15 – Neftegaz.RU. Global drilling and engineering contractor KCA Deutag (KCAD) has won 3 new contracts in Russia worth approximately $168 million. These contracts are for 8 high performance land rigs, 7 of which were previously built by Bentec, KCAD’s rig and oilfield equipment manufacturer. The 1st contract is with an existing client for 5 of those rigs to carry out drilling operations in 2 fields in Eastern Siberia. Each rig is expected to drill for varying periods of between 3 and 4 years. The contract increases the number of rigs we currently have operating for this client from 4 to 5. The next contract is for two 1500 HP Cluster Slider rigs which will drill in Northern Russia. It is an extension to an existing contract and will run until 31 December 2021. In addition to this KCAD has won a new contract for one of its 2000 HP land rigs to drill 4 wells in Southern Russia. This has an estimated duration of 5 months per well. Commenting on today’s announcement, Simon Drew, President of Land said: “Our fleet in Russia continues to see high utilisation and we are delighted that clients are recognising the high quality of our services and strong performance by awarding us these contracts in what continues to be a tough market.”

I literally JUST sent a note about Russian corruption to a colleague when this was published. Please note, Putin recently attacked the OCCRP. A colleague has already linked this article with the ‘predictive misinformation’ article. </end editorial>

The Russian Ministry of Interior announced on Friday that 10 people will stand trial for allegedly conducting 4 billion rubles (US$64 million) of illegal banking activities in the Russian Chuvash Republic. Russian RublesRussian RublesThe defendants stand accused of creating 30 fake firms over six years, each existing for only a day, profiting about 50 million rubles ($800,000) off of the over 3,500 “investors.” The arrests were made as part of an investigation that started in 2017 when the ministry began to get information about the group. “The operatives received information that a 40-year-old resident of the city of Cheboksary decided to extract income by committing illegal banking activities and creating one-day firms, which attracted a number of local residents,” the ministry said in a statement. “Through these organizations, cash withdrawal of unaccounted money in circulation – ‘black cash’- was made and a large-scale income was extracted,” the ministry said. The investigation led to over 500 interviews with those who knew of the group and their actions over the past two years. The Chuvash Republic, where the group operated, was rated 61st out of 81 in a recent investment analysis of the Russian Federation’s regions, consistently struggling to secure foreign funding. Of the 10 people that were indicted, only one had previously been prosecuted, according to the ministry. Each will face charges of illegal banking activities, fraud, and money laundering, all while operating as an organized crime group, which could result in a harsher sentence. The defendants will be tried in the Leninsky District Court in the Chuvash city of Cheboksary.

As Turkey starts receiving Russia’s S-400 missile systems, the United States should end Ankara’s participation in the F-35 fighter jet programme as NATO officials consider whether Turkey still belongs in the alliance, the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. U.S. officials have repeatedly stated that the S-400 poses a threat to U.S. and NATO defences, warning of sanctions as well as Turkey’s possible expulsion from the F-35 stealth fighter programme and from the Transatlantic alliance. Turkey began taking delivery of S-400 systems on Friday, and as of Sunday had accepted seven shipments. “At a minimum this should mean the end of Turkey’s participation in the F-35 fighter programme,” said WSJ. “The S-400 was more or less designed to shoot down NATO planes.” Yet ousting Turkey from NATO would be a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the WSJ added, and could lead to the United States losing its air base at Incirlik and Turkey attacking U.S.-allied Kurdish militias in northern Syria. Erdoğan’s successor may rethink his hostility to the West, so WSJ calls for stopping short of NATO expulsion. “But Mr. Erdogan has to suffer some consequences, or the obligations of an alliance shrink to nothing. President Trump sounded conciliatory on the S-400 decision at the recent G-20 summit, and perhaps the Turk interpreted that as a sign he would get a sanctions pass,” said WSJ. “If Mr. Trump blinks in response, Congress will have to show Mr. Erdoğan the cost of betraying an ally.”

JNS.org – Turkey began to receive the S-400 air-defense missile-defense system on Friday despite US warnings not to do so. The move by Turkey is likely to have “major ramifications” for the US-Turkish relationship, according to Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “Turkey will no longer be able to receive F-35 stealth jets and Turkish companies removed from the F-35 supply chain will lose $12 billion of revenue. Also, the United States is likely to impose CAATSA sanctions against Turkey, which will further undermine US-Turkish trade and defense cooperation,” he told JNS. get the best of the algemeiner straight to your inbox! sign up! The move could also bring negative financial consequences for Turkey, which may be headed for an economic collapse similar to Venezuela, according to analysts. “The F-35 move could prove to be a costly mistake for [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, especially during Turkey’s ongoing economic downturn. Expected US sanctions will undermine investor confidence at home and abroad, and exacerbate the country’s economic woes by triggering a new wave of capital flight,” said Erdemir.

Reform MEP and former Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet has hit out at a recent weapons procurement which saw Turkey, a NATO member, taking delivery of state-of-the-art air defense systems from the Russian Federation.

On Friday, first elements of the controversial S-400 air defense system arrived in Ankara. For $ 2.5 billion, Turkey bought these mobile missile systems from Russia – despite fierce criticism from NATO, which is a member of Turkey, and its nominally “strategic partner” America. Why President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants these weapon systems at all costs, that is difficult for security experts to understand.

After a months-long stand-off between the US and Turkey over Ankara’s move to purchase Russian-made air defence systems, the first components of the S-400s arrived in the country. Why Turkey bought them for $2.5 billion despite fierce criticism from NATO and its proclaimed “strategic partner”, the US, has kept commentators guessing.

Turkey’s Erdogan said NATO “should be happy” that a member state is beefing up security, even with Russia’s S-400 air defense system. He also called on Trump to waive sanctions and sell Turkey fighter jets.

The deliveries of Russian S400 ballistic missiles to Ankara has further soured Turkish-Western relations, and an ever more hawkish stance on energy development from the former is setting the region up for a new conflict

Delivery of S-400 defense missile system continued on July 15, as eighth Russian plane carrying equipment of the system landed at an airbase on the outskirts of Ankara, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on July 15.

The seventh aircraft carrying a batch of components for S-400 missile systems arrived in Turkey on Sunday, the Turkish Defence Ministry reported. “The deliveries of S-400 air defence systems continue. In this context, the seventh plane has landed at Murted Air Base [in the Ankara province],” the ministry said in a statement.

President Donald Trump’s team has settled on a sanctions package to punish Turkey for receiving parts of a Russian missile defense system and plans to announce it in the coming days, said people familiar with the matter.

Additional S-400 air defense components have arrived in Turkey, as Washington remains unusually silent while reportedly contemplating the proper timing and degree of pain it wants to inflict on its NATO ally for disobedience.

With the long-awaited transfer of the first Russian S-400 missile defence systems on Friday, Turkey has crossed a threshold in its relations with the United States that will have a clear impact on the NATO alliance and on Turkey’s immediate future. The United States must move quickly to make good on its threat of sanctions in order to create a red line for other NATO allies eyeing Russian defence hardware, said Director for Special Research at Freedom House Nate Schenkkan. With options on how to enforce the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) measures threatened by the U.S. Congress ranging up to the “nuclear”, U.S. President Donald Trump must choose the most effective selection of five from a menu of 12 sanctions. This means starting with measures that would have an impact on Turkey and send a message to onlookers without being strong enough to cripple the country’s defence industry, Schenkkan said.

A Russian shipment carrying the first components of the S-400 surface-to-air defense system landed in Turkey on Friday, in a move that has been opposed by the Pentagon and could damage Turkey’s relationship with the United States and other NATO allies.

On 12 July Turkey’s Defence Ministry said Ankara had received the first batch of components for the S-400 air defence systems it had purchased in line with an agreement signed with Moscow in 2017. Turkey’s cooperation with Russia on the matter has been heavily criticised by NATO and the US.

Paul Goble Staunton, July 14 – When Moscow occupied Latvia in 1940, among the new regime’s first steps was to promulgate a coat of arms for the newly minted Soviet republic. Being consistent with all but two other republics (Armenia and Georgia), it featured the sun – but with a major variation that led to a joke that turned out to be true. The Soviets wanted the sun to be rising but the Latvian coat of arms showed it half out of the sea. The only sea Latvia abuts, of course, is the Baltic; and that means the sun as shown was setting not rising. For half a century, Latvians joked that “Latvia was the republic of the setting sun” (russian7.ru/post/kakuyu-oshibku-dopustil-avtor-gerba-lat/). Only in 1990, when Latvia was on the way to recovering its de facto independence was the coat of arms changed. It too featured the sun but not half submerged by the sea but over land, an arrangement that suggested that Latvia was on the rise rather than in decline, according to heraldic principles. The Soviet-era Latvian coat of arms was designed by prominent Riga artist Artur Apinis also contained another variation from the Moscow standard which some may have seen as having an additional message. In all other Soviet coats of arms, the hammer was always shown over the sickle but on the Latvian one, the reverse was true. But the Soviets had problems not just with the Latvian coat of arms but with the original coat of arms for the country as a whole. As designed by Ivan Dubasov, a native Muscovite, the sickle was shown with a handle that got smaller away from the blade, an arrangement making it impossible to hold and that no one who had ever used a sickle would make. That mistake, which was repeated on Soviet coinage in the 1920s and 1930s, was finally corrected in 1937.

07/15/2019 The Chemical Plant “Nitro-Chem” SA, part of Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, received a certificate confirming the completion of the implementation process of the Mk-82 aircraft bombs technology, which are used on the Polish F-16 aircraft. The event is the result of an agreement signed in November 2017 between RWM Italia and Zakłady Chemiczne “Nitro-Chem” SA regarding cooperation in the production of standard American air bombs of the Mk-80 family in Poland. The project is carried out jointly with the renowned partner of RWM Italia, belonging to the Rheinmetall Defense group – a certified and world leader in the production of aerial bombs. – We are satisfied with the next step in cooperation with Rheinmetall Defense. The production of Mk-82 air bombs in Poland will bring increased state security in connection with the increase of the level of independence and the creation of production capabilities in the country. What’s more, it will generate the possibility of potential export of Polish bombs to third markets. The “Nitro-Chemu” activities implement the strategy of polonization of weapon systems in the equipment of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland – said Sebastian Chwałek, vice president of the management board of Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa. – A year and a half of hard work has resulted in the fact that our plants have obtained the production capabilities of modern weapons. We start with orders for Polish aviation. This year we will be producing the first batch of 200 bombs – said Krzysztof Kozłowski, president of the board of “Nitro-Chemu”. Produced in Poland and certified by RWM Italia, the bomb meets the high quality requirements set by RWM Italia and is fully interchangeable with the Italian MK-82 bomb. In addition, the Polish bomb will be used in modern air bomb configurations (such as GBU-12 and GBU-38) thanks to its compatibility with Raytheon and Boeing company guidance systems. In the last three years, the Polish Air Force ordered about 1,300 bombs of this type. *** Zakłady Chemiczne “Nitro-Chem” SA is the center of elaboration of ammunition in Poland. In addition to producing explosives for the needs of the Polish Army and allied armies, the company deals filling them with naval and anti-tank mines, aerial bombs (including LBOB-100 aerial bombs) and artillery, tank and mortar shells of various calibers. “Nitro-Chem” also produces explosives for the civil market, where they are used primarily in mining and road construction. Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) is the leader of the Polish industry and one of the largest defense companies in Europe. It assembles 58 companies and has shares in 32 others (defense, shipbuilding, and new technologies), achieving annual revenues of PLN 5 billion. Thanks to the use of the technology’s polonization potential, close cooperation with Polish science and the emphasis on the research and development process, PGZ offers innovative products for modern armed forces. RWM Italia, a member of the Rheinmetall Defense group, is a renowned supplier of weaponry in the world. In addition to the bombs of the Mk 80 family (including Mk-82 and Mk-84), RWM Italia also manufactures sea mines and deep-sea cargoes as well as renders ammunition elimination services with explosives. RWM Italia operates in Ghedi in northern Italy and in Domusnovas in Sardinia.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Danylyuk has met with US politicians, government officials, analysts, experts and diplomats within the framework of his visit to the United States. “NSDC Secretary of Ukraine met with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, National Security Advisor to Vice President General Keith Kellogg, US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Council’s Senior Director for Europe and Russia Fiona Hill, and former U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The parties discussed the prospects for the development of the US-Ukraine relations in the new political environment and the possibilities of intensifying security cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” the press service of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine reports. In addition, the US-Ukraine cooperation in the energy sector, the prospects and key areas of bilateral relations were discussed during the meetings of the NSDC Secretary with US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources Francis R. Fannon. During his visit to the United States, the NSDC Secretary Danylyuk also met with US Representative to the EU Gordon Sondland, US Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood and US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. Oleksandr Danylyuk also discussed the issues of financial cooperation with Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Justin Muzinich, World Bank Group President David Malpass, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation Georgina Baker, World Bank’s Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Cyril Muller and Head of the IMF Mission Ron Van Roden. The intensification of cooperation in the field of cyber security was touched upon during the meeting of Ukraine’s NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Danylyuk with first director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Christopher Krebs. The parties discussed the coordination of efforts and prospects for close interaction between Ukraine and the United States, as well as further enhancing of the NSDC’s capabilities as a coordinating body in the cyber security area.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Ukraine Igor Sokol has said Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko agreed to visit Ukraine at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky invited Lukashenko to attend the Forum of Regions in Zhytomyr.

Leader of the European Solidarity Party, the fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will visit Strasbourg (France) on July 17, where at that time the European Parliament will be electing the leadership of the European Union.

An EU court in Luxembourg has annulled asset freezes imposed on Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, his son Oleksandr, and five others in his team in a symbolic blow to European foreign policy in the former Soviet region. The EU Council can appeal the General Court ruling at its highest tribunal, the European Court of Justice.

The Kremlin spokesman has refused to comment on the issue of a possible swap of 24 Ukrainian POW sailors for former chief of the Russian RIA Novosti’s Kyiv office, Kirill Vyshinsky. Peskov stressed Moscow was monitoring the situation with the trial of a RIA Novosti journalist.

Border guards of the Federal Security Service of Russia operating in the illegally annexed Crimea announced that they had apprehended two Ukrainian nationals at a checkpoint set up at the de-facto border with between mainland Ukraine and the occupied peninsula July 15. The names of the detainees have not been disclosed.

Volunteers of the international intelligence community InformNapalm have collected new data on the participation of Russian servicemen of the 234th Air Assault Regiment in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, according to a report posted on the InformNapalm website. — Ukrinform.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the Chonhar checkpoint on the administrative border between mainland Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea. The president instructed the local authorities to complete the infrastructure development of the checkpoints by December 20, 2019.

Over the past day, mercenaries of the Russian-terrorist forces fired at the positions of the joint forces operation, 4 of them with the use of 122-mm caliber, 120-mm and 82-mm mortar bombs prohibited by the Minsk agreements. Also, terrorists opened fire on our defenders from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns and small arms, two Ukrainian soldiers were injured. According to Tsenzor.NET , this is stated in the press center of the OOS headquarters on the Facebook page . “As a result of enemy shelling, 2 servicemen were injured. For each shelling, the enemy received an adequate response on armaments that do not contradict the Minsk agreements,” the report said. In the area of responsibility of the operational-tactical group “Vostok”, the militants fired at OOS positions 10 times: near Shirokino – with small arms; next to Skilled – from an easel anti-tank grenade launcher and large-caliber machine gun; four times near Water – from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns and small arms; on the outskirts of Novotroitsk – from grenade launchers of various systems and large-caliber machine guns; in the area of Verkhnetoretsk – from an easel anti-tank grenade launcher and large-caliber machine gun; near Sand – from a mortar of 120 mm caliber and a mounted anti-tank grenade launcher; near Avdeevka – from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns and small arms. In the area of responsibility of the operational-tactical grouping “Sever”, Ukrainian positions were fired five times: twice near Zaytsevo – from 120-mm mortar shells and machine-gun anti-tank grenade launchers; near Novoaleksandrovka – from mortars of caliber 120 and 82 mm, grenade launchers of various systems and heavy machine gun; twice nearby Novolugansky – from 122-mm caliber artillery systems, 120-mm caliber mortars and anti-tank grenade launchers. According to Ukrainian intelligence on July 13, one militant was wounded. “Since the beginning of the current day, the enemy has fired at the positions of the united forces four times,” the headquarters added. In the area of responsibility of the operational-tactical group “Vostok”, the militants carried out two shelling of the positions of Ukrainian defenders: twice near Shirokino – with small arms. In the area of responsibility of the operational-tactical grouping “North”, the environmental protection positions were fired twice: near Krymsky – with a mortar of 82-mm caliber, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, a hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher, a large-caliber machine gun and small arms; nearby Zaitsevoy – from an automatic grenade launcher and small arms. Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137391

The number of Russia-led forces attacks in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, July 13, more than doubled overnight since an evening update by the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters on Saturday. Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action over the period under review.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded on July 13, as Russia’s hybrid military forces mounted six attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Each enemy attack saw an adequate response from Ukraine’s Joint Forces.

Three civilian houses and the fence in the town of Maryinka in Donetsk region were damaged after Russia-led forces opened fire from an infantry fighting vehicle on July 11. No civilian casualties have been reported.

Mercenaries of the Russian Federation fired residential areas of the frontline Marinka from the BMP in Donetsk region. Censor informs about this. NO with reference to the OS press center . Наемники РФ обстреляли из БМП жилые кварталы Марьинки, – СЦКК 01 On July 11, from 22:25 to 22:45, pro-Russian troops from BMP-2 fired at Marinka, as a result of which several houses were damaged. It is established that the enemy fired from the direction of the village of Trudovskaya. During the photofixation, officers of the observation group of the Ukrainian side of the JCCC discovered damage in at least four houses at different addresses. In particular, on the streets of Prokofiev 45, Novaya 3 and Zavodskaya 12 damage to walls, windows and the roof was recorded. In addition, Shevchenko 48, observed damage to the fence. Источник:https://censor.net.ua/p3137411

As of 12 o’clock today, July 14, the Russian-occupying troops carried out 5 attacks on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbas. It is reported Tsenzor.NET with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Defense. In the Luhansk area, the enemy, with the beginning of the day from the occupied village of Bold, spent half an hour firing at equipped outposts of the United forces with mortars of 82 mm caliber, weapons of an infantry fighting vehicle, anti-tank grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns and small arms. In addition, from half past midnight the enemy fired automatic grenade launchers and small arms at our positions near Zaitsevo for almost 20 minutes. The 82-caliber mortar and automatic grenade launchers used by the invaders after 11:00 during the shelling of the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who perform combat missions in the Novolugansky area. Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137414

A short-range OSCE mission drone was fired upon while flying close to the occupied Lugansk. This is reported by Censor. NO with reference to the report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. “During the flight of a short-range SMM UAV approximately 4 km south-west of Metallist n. (Out of control of the government, 7 km south-west of Luhansk), observers heard 20 shots from small arms at a distance of about 1-1, 5 km north of their position. According to them, the shots were fired in the direction of the UAV, which flew approximately 1 km north, “the report says. It is noted that the OSCE observers were able to land the drone and left the area. Read on “Tsenzor.NET”: the OSCE lost a drone in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region “According to the analysis of aerial surveillance data obtained using this device, a person was recorded who directed the machine gun on the UAV,” the mission said. The OSCE also reported, in three cases, flying over Makeyevka (uncontrolled by the government, 12 km north-east of Donetsk), a small-sized SMM drone was exposed to interference from the GPS signal (estimated, probably due to jamming). Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137418

The Ukrainian delegation at a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation described how the Serbian sniper Beric, who fought in the Donbas as part of the Russian terrorist forces, became a “journalist” accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to Tsenzor.NET with reference to Ukrinform , Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna told about this Igor Lossovsky “We responded to the information of the Russian delegation about a certain“ Serbian journalist ”Dejan Beric. We explained to all the delegations of the participating countries, with a slide show, what kind of person it is. It does not represent Serbia in any way, nor is it a journalist. He is a war criminal and a murderer who is admitted to briefings at the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation as an alleged “foreign journalist” with the goal of producing propaganda questions and comments to discredit Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces in particular, ”said Lossovsky. According to the diplomat, those present at the meeting familiarized themselves in detail with the “battle route” of a mercenary from Serbia as part of the Russian occupying forces in the Donbas. They also learned about sniper rewards from official Russian institutions for the murders of Ukrainians. It was noted that the Russian side essentially covers up a war criminal from justice, because, according to Serbian legislation, he must go to prison for a long time if he returns to the country. “At the meeting, the representative of the Serbian delegation became interested in this case. He stressed that the Serbian Penal Code provides for a large prison term for participating in a war or armed conflict abroad, as well as an even longer period for organizing participation (of other persons. – Ed.) In the war or an armed conflict in another country, under which Dejan Beric falls precisely. At the request of the Serbian representative we gave him all the information we have about this, “the Ukrainian diplomat said. According to him, earlier in the course of the Forum meetings, the Russian delegation quoted the “Serbian journalist” Dejan Beric in support of their absurd statements about alleged shelling of peaceful cities in the Donbas by the Ukrainian military. Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137404

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has put on a wanted list the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) investigator Pavel Karpenyuk, who was investigating the case of the Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb arrested in Russia. Censor.NET reports citing LB.ua. It is specified that Karpenyuk is put on the wanted list by the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities on June 12 of the current year. He was served in absentia with suspicion under Article 372 (bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal responsibility, combined with an accusation of committing a particularly serious crime, as well as involving the artificial creation of evidence of accusation or other falsification) of the Criminal Code. The restraint measure for the accused was not elected. According to media reports, the senior investigator of the FSB Department in Krasnodarky krai Karpenyuk was involved in the detention and arrest of the 20-year-old Ukrainian Hryb. March 22, the North Caucasus District Military Court (Rostov-on-Don, the Russian Federation) has sentenced Ukrainian citizen, Pavlo Hryb, to six years in prison. The court declared the Ukrainian guilty of assisting terrorism. Read more: Klimkin: Putin uses sailors as bargaining chip According to the prosecution, Hryb allegedly through social networks incited a schoolgirl from Sochi to arrange a terrorist act. Hryb was detained by Russian security forces in Belarus in August 2017. He was taken by Russian security forces to the territory of the Russian Federation and arrested on charges of terrorism. The trial began in July 2018. Doctors discovered signs of cirrhosis of the liver of Hryb and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Ombudsperson Liudmyla Denisova said that the arrested Ukrainian needs heart surgery.

n the courtyard of a resident of the village of Smygi of the Rivne region, where two children died yesterday from an explosion, they found an arsenal of ammunition from the Second World War. Censor informs. NO with reference to the Communication Department of the National Police. Во дворе жителя Ривненщины, где вчера от взрыва погибли двое детей, нашли арсенал боеприпасов, – Нацполиция 01 As the police found, the explosion occurred in the summer kitchen of the farm, a 59-year-old resident of Smyga. An 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, who lived in the house opposite, came to visit grandmother and grandfather. Last at the time the house was not. The children opened a metal safe that was in the kitchen. In it they found a box that externally posed no danger. As it turned out, an explosive device was built into it. When the boy opened the box, an explosion occurred. Children died at the scene. The 59-year-old owner was detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and placed in a temporary detention center. The fact of the premeditated murder of two or more people, as well as the fact of illegal handling of explosives and ammunition, a pretrial investigation has been launched under paragraph 1 of part 2 of article 115 and part 1 of article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, respectively. At the scene, explosives engineers found three more similar home-made devices in various areas of the farm. Now the man cooperates with law enforcement agencies and shows where what is stored.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has introduced Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Vladyslav Bukharev and Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service Ihor Cherkasky into the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. — Ukrinform.

Organization of volunteer avialists “Oval” / Lutsk Aeroclub “Kryli Volyni” has published on its Facebook page a video of the launch of airborne class X-29 airborne missiles from the front of the Su-24M front-line bombers of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine This is reported by the Ukrainian Military Portal Su-24M bombers from the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade, based in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, worked. The launches took place on Friday July 12 at the Aviation Groundship Povursk in the Kovel region for land targets: The X-29 air missile belongs to the class of air-ground rockets of small radius of action. It is intended for the destruction of military equipment, defensive structures (base posts, headquarters, observation points, etc.), infrastructure objects (bridges, concrete runways), as well as ships and vessels with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons. The development of the 1970s was carried out by the NGO Lightning and the Vimpel NPO, which was adopted by the Soviet Army in 1980. Depending on the modification, it uses different self-referential systems. In X-29L – semi-active laser 24H1, in X-29T – passive television “Tubus-2”. The weight of the combat unit is 320 kg, the range is from 2 to 10 km in the X-29L and from 3 to 12 in the X-29T.

Organization of Volyn Airmen “Oval” / Lutsk Aeroclub “Wings of Volhynia” Follow 7 Comments 20 shares 54 Like Show More Reactions Comment Share it 6.7K views · on Saturday · Remember, last night we promised you a “treat” from yesterday’s aviation exercises at the Povursk aviation ground in Kovel district? Promised – do it. Consequently, we are offering to you a video of the launch of Kh-29 “air-to-surface” guided missiles from on board the Su-24M tactical bombers from the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade (Starokonstantinov airfield in Khmelnytsky region) on ground training targets at the Povursʹk aeronautical training ground in Kovel district, which took place yesterday, on Friday, July 12. The video was shot on the banks of the river Stokhid near the village. Chersk in the Manevitsky area as an activist of the Organization of Volyn Air Residents “OVALUND_Te”, a resident of the village. Chersk Taras Nazaruk.

The Kh-29 (Russian: Х-29; NATO: AS-14 ‘Kedge’; GRAU: 9M721) is a Soviet air-to-surface missile with a range of 10–30 km. It has a large warhead of 320 kg, has a choice of laser, infrared, active radar or TV guidance, and is typically carried by tactical aircraft such as the Su-24, Su-30, MiG-29K as well as the “T/TM” models of the Su-25, giving that craft an expanded standoff capability. The Kh-29 is intended for primary use against larger battlefield targets and infrastructure such as industrial buildings, depots and bridges,[10] but can also be used against ships up to 10,000 tonnes, hardened aircraft shelters and concrete runways.

Dmytro Razumkov, leader of the Servant of the People, the party remaining in the overwhelming lead in various polls ahead of snap parliamentary elections scheduled for July 21, has said peace could be brought to Donbas only through negotiations with Russia, not the so-called “LPR” and “DPR” formations. Ukraine must be in dialogue with actual decision-makers, Razumkov said.

At first it was touted as a victory for Russia-backed separatists: a Ukrainian military “birdie” shot out of the sky. But when the downed aircraft turned out to be MH17, the separatists and Kremlin-loyal media changed their tune.

Ukrainian peacekeepers are almost indispensable professionals for the contingents of the UN, NATO, and other international organizations. The prime minister congratulated Ukrainian peacekeepers on their professional holiday.

On July 12, during the visit of the President of Ukraine to the city of Dnipro, the head of state visited the design bureau “Pivdenne”. According to the official website of the CB “Pivdenne”: “Volodymyr Zelensky visited the exposition of rocket-propelled weapons – a self-propelled launch vehicle, a missile and an engine of the operational and tactical missile development complex of the Southern airborne missile and missile-jet prototype prototypes, which are being modernized in the KPP – a tactical missile, a jet and an air missile . ” Interestingly, in 2017, a photo of the Ukrainian helicopter Mi-8 with a hanging R-73 rocket appeared. This was written by the Military portal. We can assume that the Mi-8 was used as a flying laboratory (to study the parameters of a modernized missile in the air). It was on Mi-8 that a radar-based GSN test of the anti-ship missile “Neptun” was conducted. The fact that the missile R-73 on the Mi-8 is the rocket modernized by the Yuzhnoye spacecraft, which is shown by the non-standard rack on the beam holder (which allows the missile to be suspended on the Mi-8). This indicates that the CB “Pivdenne” has been working on the theme of the R-73 since at least 2017. What changes will be made to the P-73 rocket during the upgrade is not yet known, but previously information was published on the new IR-seeker IZZ-12, the development of Arsenal – for the modernization of the P-73 missile As for the mention of the modernization of the tactical missile and the rocket launcher “Yuzhny”, the most likely it was the modernization of missiles of the tactical rocket complex “Tochka” / “Point-U” and shells to the MLRS “Smerch”. About the conduct of regular work with these missiles at CB “Pivdenne” our portal has already written earlier

The American private aerospace company Firefly Aerospace, which has a research and development center in Ukraine, announced the plans to create a lunar spacecraft, reports ain.uanews outlet. The company will borrow technologies from the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries. Israeli spacecraft crashed into the moon’s surface in April 2019 due to an engine failure. Beresheet was to become the first private device to land on the moon. After the crash, the development of Beresheet 2 was announced. However, Firefly Aerospace will use the design and core technology of the project. Agreements on the use of intellectual property have already been signed. The new device will be called Genesis. The technical characteristics of Genesis have not yet been revealed, as well as the date of its possible launch. Firefly Aerospace has not yet launched any rockets, but the first flight of a light carrier Alpha is scheduled to December 2019. The rocket Beta, which has not been built yet should put Genesis into orbit.

The shelling of the 112-Ukraine channel HQ could be a provocation that is part of the strategy of Russia’s meddling in Ukraine elections, says the chief editor of the Information Resistance website, Yuriy Karin. The plots are being brought to life by rivaling Kremlin groups.

Oliver Stone, once again, released a “documentary” containing multiple discredited “lies” during an interview with Russian President Putin. Some of the disproven theories promoted by Stone: Georgian snipers murdered Ukrainians during Maidan Former Ukraine President Yanukovych exonerated from any blame America supported the coup Russia did not interfere with the US 2016 election Former Ukraine President Poroshenko provoked the Kerch Strait Naval incident Former US President Obama did not keep his word Oliver Stone is but one more arrow in Putin’s quiver of information warfare tools, he is pushing pure Russian propaganda in his latest “mockumentary”. It would be interesting to see someone in the US government or a reputable industry leader label “Revealing Ukraine” as what it really is: Russian propaganda. Furthermore, using Cold War rhetoric, Oliver Stone should be labeled a “Useful Idiot”. </end editorial>

The international editorial board of the television channel 112 Ukraine has issued a recommendation against the demonstration of Oliver Stone’s documentary, Revealing Ukraine, the television channel stated on its website. The board held an urgent meeting, with participation of its members David Coburn, Nathan Gill, and Arne Gericke, who are members of the European Parliament, and passed a resolution “strongly recommending that the 112 Ukraine staff should refrain from airing the Oliver Stone documentary ‘Revealing Ukraine,'” according to the statement released on Monday morning. The recommendation was given because of fears that journalists’ rights will not be fully protected should the channel get sanctioned for airing the film, the resolution said. The screening is scheduled for July 16. The film features in particular the head of the political board of the Ukrainian Opposition Platform-For Life Party, Viktor Medvedchuk, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Authorities were investigating an attack on the 112 TV network in western Kiev It’s owned by Taras Kozak, a member of the Russia-friendly Opposition Platform The channel said it will air new Oliver Stone documentary which features Putin Unknown assailant shot missile at the building at 3.40am local time, police said Grenade caused damage, did not injure anyone but is being treated as ‘terrorism’

An unidentified assailant has fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Ukrainian television station in the capital of Kiev. No one was hurt in the attack on Saturday, and Kiev police have initiated a search for suspects. Authorities have classified the attack as an act of terrorism.

A rocket-propelled grenade has been fired at the building that houses the Kyiv office of Ukrainian television Channel 112. The attack, which occurred around 3:40 a.m. on July 13, was classified as terrorism by officials. It caused no injuries but damaged the office building’s exterior. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that police had no suspects but were actively investigating the case.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine says it hopes to see a thorough investigation into a recent attack on the office building of television Channel 112 with the use of a grenade launcher. U.S. diplomats say physical attacks against any media representatives are unacceptable.

Russian journalist and TV host Andrey Malakhov has landed up on Ukraine’s Myrotvorets (“Peacemaker”) database, which lists individuals posing a threat to Ukraine’s security, as he was one of the hosts of a propaganda TV link-up the Russian side wanted to organize with a pro-Russia TV channel in Ukraine. The linkup between Russia-1 and Ukraine’s NewsOne was to be held on July 12, but shortly before that, NewsOne said the event had been cancelled.

A court hearing in the case of Kirill Vyshinsky, chief of the Russian RIA Novosti’s Kyiv office, who has been charged with treason and held in custody since May 15, 2018, has been rescheduled from July 15 to July 19. Kyiv’s Podilsky district court has failed for the second time to consider a motion filed by the lawyers of the accused.

15.07.19 17:22 – Over 1,700 international observers to monitor Ukraine’s snap parliamentary elections The Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered 306 more official observers from international organizations and foreign states for Ukraine’s early parliamentary elections scheduled for July 21. View news.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman says that Ukraine cannot stop the train service with the Russian Federation over transit obligations with the European Union. Ukraine has international obligations to the EU under the Association Agreement.

Leader of the Servant of the People Party Dmytro Razumkov has said the decision on de-communization should be taken in local referenda. Razumkov said local residents must be consulted ahead of making moves such as renaming settlements as part of the country’s effort to dismantle the legacies of its Soviet past.

A service was held in the village of Zarvanitsa near Ternopil on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s departure from the underground. According to Tsenzor.NET with reference to “RBC-Ukraine” , the service was headed by the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav. “The front line of the struggle between good and evil does not pass somewhere in the east of Ukraine, but passes through my heart. The front line, my block is a post where I will have to protect that freedom thirty years ago, through faith, like a miracle of Ukraine God has given us – this freedom must be protected today I. Someone protects with arms in hand, and we must protect you by participating in early parliamentary elections. Listen to the voice of your own conscience when you make your choice. Ukraine will not just win against with evil, but will rise from their ailments “, – from etil Beatitude Sviatoslav, adding that on July 21 – this is another fight for freedom and independence of Ukraine. Fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his family also took part in pilgrimages and divine services. “Ukraine is going through very difficult trials, difficult times. And the Lord’s prayer, the Lord’s help is necessary for us. Therefore, I’m here today with hundreds of thousands of people. Together with the pilgrims we ask the Lord and the Most Pure Virgin Mary to bring the long-awaited peace to the Ukrainian land and preserve our native country. And I firmly believe that the Lord will bring us a good future, “said Poroshenko. Источник: https://censor.net.ua/n3137424

The Kyiv Court of Appeals has granted the petition of the British company JKX Oil & Gas with assets in Ukraine to recognize and enforce the arbitration decision of the London Court of International Arbitration of February 6, 2017 to recover losses of over $12 million, the press service of the Ilyashev and Partners law firm, representing the interests of JKX, has said.

A pilot has been killed as a Mi-2 helicopter crashed near the village of Yabluchne in Sumy region while spraying corn fields with chemicals on Sunday, July 14. The helicopter was engaged in field spraying works.

Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew has declared that the nature of autocephaly provided to the OCU is the same as that of other local churches. Meanwhile, the Mother Church of Constantinople is only called to help its “children,” the patriarch said in an interview with TSN. Drawing analogies with the mother-child-type of relations, Patriarch Bartholomew noted that dues to external circumstances, after “baptizing” her children, Mother Church was forced to tell them to learn to live on their own and govern themselves. However, Bartholomew says, in times of hardship, Mother Church will always be there to help with spiritual resources, including the experience. Read alsoNew Ukrainian church punishes Filaret, taking from “patriarch” Kyiv diocese, temples Actually, Patriarch Bartholomew personally confirmed that the Ukrainian church is independent, similar to other local churches. Also, Bartholomew expressed regret regarding the actions of Filaret against the background of the latter’s attempts to restore the Kyiv Patriarchate in defiance of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Bartholomew noted that, while Filaret should have become a mentor for his spiritual son, Metropolitan Epifaniy, he had chosen a different path, which Bartholomew called wrong, TSN reports.